This film was absolutely a step above awful. In fact, it was just terrible.Had we had a decent script, Joan Fontaine would have easily landed the Kay Kendall part. How fortunate for Joan. Kendall was way off her mark here. She was far better known for light comedy along with some singing and dancing.The plot here is absolutely ridiculous. An old uncle sends his nephew, Taylor, to view the woman of his dreams in 1465. You don't have to have a doctorate to realize what will occur.In the middle of all this nonsense, there is intrigue between factions in France and some character who hides in the woods to make mischief. No, it's not Robin Hood.Robert Morley is again King Louis, but this time with a different Roman numeral from his wonderful performance 17 years before in the memorable "Marie Antoinette" with Norma Shearer. That was a Louis and that was a film.

Around the time that Kay Kendall was awarded her role in this MGM costumer, Grace Kelly, who had first been considered for the role, said, in an interview in which she admitted declining the role, "All I would have had to do was clutch my jewel box and flee!" Along with her ceding the title role to Tippie Hedren in Hitchcock's "Marnie" (filmed after her ascension to the Grimaldi throne), Grace seemed to have had her sights set upon the real royalty of Monaco, rather than continuing her reign as one of cinema's loveliest princesses!

You know a movie is in trouble when the worst parts are the action sequences. The cast does the best they can with the material, particularly Robert Morley as the scheming Louis XI, but the movie lacks originality and can't overcome comparisons to much better historical action films of this era.

Richard Thorpe managed a few amusing moments in "The Adventures of Quentin Durward" which has a trapped Kay Kendall, whose only hard way to escape was to get rid from the evil black villain William De La Marck (Ducan Lamont).Robert Taylor (Quentin Durward) engaged with De La Marck a rare but extremely exciting duel to-the-death with ax and dagger in the burning bell tower, swinging on the bell ropes in a rhythmic motion, getting from side to side with the sound of the ringing bells, until the destruction of the vile Count...The best part of the film is the performance of the delicious heroine, Kay Kendall, 'one of the Cinema's few outstanding Comediennes,'whose beauty and artistic talent flourished the story, set in the 15th-Century France...Kay Kendall (1926-59) went away much too young of leukemia...Kay performed the maiden in distress, the medieval heroine fitting well into a motion picture which caught beautifully Scott's novel... The plot was simple: an elderly English Lord (Ernest Thesiger) sends his nephew (Robert Taylor) to seek in marriage a French Lady (Kay Kendall) on his behalf... He falls in love with her himself..Sir Walter Scott wrote the novel in 1823... His 'Ivanhoe, 'The Talisman' and 'Rob Roy' have received most attention from filmmakers...Another quality of "The Adventures of Quentin Durward" is the good acting of Robert Morley as the cunning, outrageous, very winding King, a characterization so different to his great performance as the weak-minded Louis XVI in "Marie-Antoinette" opposite Norma Shearer... This delightful British actor played excellent supporting roles in good-humored or pretentious roles...Robert Taylor was the perfect cavalier, the man of word and sword, the romantic adventurer who appeared to relieve a charming Lady..